


sharp edges and teddy bear band aids.

by thelinquent



Series: i'll walk through fire (for you, with you) [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Ben Hargreeves is Alive, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Fluff, Good Brother Ben Hargreeves, Kinda?, Other, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Stuttering Diego Hargreeves, i need more ben fics, my sweet baby bun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-18 19:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19340866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelinquent/pseuds/thelinquent
Summary: Diego has a habit of polishing his knives when he's stressed. Ben tries to help.





	sharp edges and teddy bear band aids.

Diego hums a song they keep playing on the radio, not exactly his favorite one but since it's being played over and over again on the radio, he can't do anything about it getting stuck inside his head. His radio is his only source of entertainment after all. Reginald doesn't really allow them to watch TV, something about the poor quality of the contents. On some days, though, he would let them watch TV and they would huddle together on the sofa, bickering about who gets to choose what to watch and complaining about how cramped it is, since they're trying to fit seven teenagers into one medium-sized sofa. Now nodding his head to the rhythm of his own voice, Diego puts down the knife he's been polishing and picks up another one, starting over his routine again. He's been doing for the past twenty minutes or so, stopping once in awhile to marvel at how shiny they get after being polished.

When he sees Ben appearing from the hallway from the corner of his eyes, he doesn't look up. Once Ben walks toward him and sits beside him on the sofa, Diego turns to look at him. "Hey, Ben."

Ben's lips stretch into a small smile as he scoots closer. "Again?" 

Lifting his eyebrow in silent question, Diego cocks his head to the side. "What?"

"You polished them two days ago," Ben supplies, and there's a tiny crease between his eyebrows. He's looking at Diego as if he's waiting for an explanation and Diego stops polishing his knives. Silence triumphs the room as Diego is trying to process whatever Ben is implying but failed. "What happened at individual practice?" he asks. 

"W-what's that supposed to m-mean?" Diego retorts, not seeing the correlation between his individual practice and him polishing his knives for the second time that week. It has to be that, since Ben is not the type of person to jump from topics to topics in a split second. 

Ben sighs. "Something must've happened."

Diego snorts and continues to rub the polishing cloth over his blade, refusing to recall what happened an hour ago because he figures it'd be easier that way. "I j-just like 'em shiny, Ben."

Pressing his lips into a thin line, Ben retorts, "You polished your knives after Dad told you off because you asked why Mom doesn't have a bedroom."

His jaw clenches at that, the familiar feeling of bubbling wrath creeping up inside his chest. "So?

"You also polished your knives after you accidentally heard Vanya crying in her room after she wasn't included in the family photo."

"Mhm." 

"And when Luther was punished because his strategy didn't go exactly as planned too."

Exhaling through his nose, Diego puts down the knife he's holding along with the cloth to look at the shorter of the two properly. "What a-are you implying?" 

"I think you polish your knives when you're stressed out," Ben says, voice small and timid. "That's why I asked what happened at individual practice." 

He stills, the thought of him polishing his knives whenever he's stressed is incredulous to him because he's always stressed. If that's the case, he's going to be polishing his knives every second of the day. He considers brushing it off, not wanting to place a burden on Ben's shoulders. But when he stares at Ben and finds his eyes clouded with worry, Diego's heart aches. Ben, the small boy who always asks if they're okay when he senses something is wrong, the sibling who would go above and beyond to cheer the others up, is now looking at him like he's hurting too. 

"D-dad locked me in a r-room and filled it with some kind of gas that made me d-d-dizzy, didn't realize b-because it was odorless and c-colorless." Diego spits out, the words feel like acid on his tongue. "Wanted t-to see if I can still hit the m-marks. "

Trying his best not to show how horrified he feels, Ben still visibly winces. "Is that why your hands are covered in cuts?"

Diego looks down, suddenly aware of how many small cuts littered across his palms and fingers. "Yeah, I c-couldn't even hold t-them p-p-properly." Something lodges itself in his throat as he relives the earlier practice. It's all coming back to him. The feeling of panic seeping into his skin as he missed the marks, fingers slipping from the handle and pressing on the blade instead, his vision blurry and head pounding as he looked around in attempt to locate all the targets. The dread looming over him when he finds himself loosing his footing before finally collapsing and blacking out.

"Did Mom clean them up?" Ben's voice snaps him back to reality and Diego release a shuddering breath, nodding. Ben holds out his arms, fingers wriggling, asking for Diego's. Instead of giving his hand, Diego gives him a confused look instead and Ben rolls his eyes. Ben reaches for Diego's hand while his other hand is grabbing something out of his pocket. When he pulls it out, Diego sees a handful of band aids. 

Ben folds his legs so that he's sitting cross-legged on the sofa and lowers Diego's hand to rest on his leg as he unwraps one of the band aids. "Why didn't she put band aids on them?"

"I don't w-want her to," Diego replies. "The o-others will ask." He didn't mention that he's still looking for excuses if someone asks him what happened to his hand. His only plan is to hide them from his siblings' sight as much as he can. 

"Well, if they ask, you can tell them you were a victim of Ben playing doctor." He doesn't ask why Diego lets him put on the band aids because Ben is fully aware that Diego secretly lets him do anything, even if Diego himself denies it. 

Small fingers begin to carefully place a band aid over the cut at the corner of Diego's palm. When he's done, Diego pulls his hand away momentarily to take a good look at the band aids. He raises his eyebrows when he sees that the band aid has small teddy bear heads as a pattern. "Really? Teddy bears?"

The smaller beams at him, eyes crinkling at the corners and Diego's chest is filled with warmth. "They look like me, don't they? Teddy Bens." He grabs Diego's hand again to stick some more band aids over the cuts. "When you look at your hand, you can think of me instead of the bad memories."

He almost chokes at that, tears welling up but he refuses to cry in front of Ben, who's trying to make him feel better. "Sure, buddy." His free hand flies to ruffle Ben's hair. "I'll k-keep that in mind."

**Author's Note:**

> i just need more ben and diego fics, okay. kudos and comments will be much appreciated. ♡


End file.
